The Brink - WatStock '09.

When i was first told about WatStock, i didn't think it would work. Watlington is a small village, in between Kings Lynn and Cambridge, and i didn't think it would be a good places to hold a music festival. When it started out, it was a half day thing, an the organisers had to pay the bands with alcohol because they couldn't afford to pay them with money. This year was the second attempt, and it was extended to two full days. The main difference being instead of having to beg bands to play the festival, they had to turn down many of them. Over 70 bands applied to play the free music festival and had to be turned down due to lack of set time. I was only there for the second half of the second day of the festival, but what i saw was amazing. The bands were all local, and not all great, but everyone seemed to be having a nice time. It wasn't hot, but it wasn't freezing so everyone was quite chilled an happy to just sit around listening to the music. As i went only on the sunday i missed the 2thousand strong crowd that turned up the day before for the festival. I sat around for a while listening to a few bands, until one came on that particularly caught my attention. Ed Butt, i'm sorry, Edwin Butler, as he is now known, came on and was incredibly brave. He walked out all on his own and seemed to be trying as hard as he could to get the crowd going. Some of his songs were ok, but some justmade you wince, possibly the work of him, possibly the soundman, i can't decide. He went off and a band called the PunkyNuts came on. These guys basically covered Punk songs. Most of them were good, however some were quite bizarre, and i have never heard such a heavy rendition of a Blink 182 song in my life. They continued playing a variety of songs including +44, Green Day and Kings of Leon. These guys got a bit of a reaction and i think are quite good. It was quite unfair that it started to rain halfway through their set so a lot of people decided they were better off indoors, so thewy could still hear everything but the band was essentially playing to a field, which, even if you're getting paid can't be the most rewarding gig in the world.

The headliners of the festival, however were simply fantastic. They first caught real mainstream attention on Britains Got Talent, where they got 3 yes' from the judges. Their seconds EP, One Night Only was recently released and they agreed to play WatStock as Sundays Headliners. These guys already had a group of fans ready at the front of the barriers before they were even announced onstage, and they went nuts when they came up.

Now, i've been to a lot of gigs, i i can honestly say these guys were brilliant. I struggle to say they were better than any big bands i've seen, but they were far better than practically every support band i have seen at a show, even betetr than some bigger ones. Firstly, when they were playing they seemed to be enjoying themselves. They were moving around and having fun, a lot of bands i've seen playing small shows seem to have realised they're playing small shows and don't put much effoert in. These guys came out, knew what they were up against and even in the rain managed to get a large crowd and a massive reaction.

Another good thing about this band, is that they are complete posers. Not in a sense that they aren't a real band and are just pretending, but in a sense that they seem to have watched rock videos, realised people are going to be taking photos of them and try to make the photos as visually interesting to ensure you have a good memory, and a great photo to remember them by. This is great, as i photo of a band doing something cool is uch more impressive than of a guy standing still behind a mike, which i've seen several bands do.

When these guys first started playing, i was only interested because i had to take picture of them. I had never heard of the band before and i wasn't that bothered about hearing them, but i wandered over and took some photos and, naturally, listened to the music. It was brilliant. They started playing through some of their songs, which were kinda catchy if you weren't really paying attention, but when you stop and actually listen you just can't get the songs out of your head.

About halfway throught the set, the singer, Matt, stopped and decided that during their albums title track "One Night Only" the merch stand would be half price. This was a good idea on every level. They managed to attract the attention of people who like the music, but not enough to pay £7 for it to go buy it half price, so they still sold copies, but they also got the fans who like them enough to wait for their set to end and pay full price. After playing a few more songs, the festival organisers decided they would open the barriers and allow the fans right up to the stage. This was great, as while the band were good on their own, Matt seemed so much happier when the crowd were allowed up close and he could associate himself with them. They played a few more songs and then walked off the stage.

The fans clearly were unhappy with this, and thus started chanting "One more song! One more song!". I was backstage taking photos, so they walked off and started talking amongst themselves, debaiting wether or not to go back up and play some more, in the end, they decided they would play "One Night Only" again. Now i think that if you were in a band playing the same songs day in day out would get really boring, and each time you played a song you would lose a certain amount of enthusiasm, so i couldn't imagine how bored the band would be playing the same song twice in a show. I was totally wrong, the band ran back onstage and put just as much, if not more enthusiasm into the song second time around than they had first. By this time, the crowd had grown from a few previous fans and a couple of people who wanted to know what all the noise was about, to a good strong crowd all swaying and jumping and singing along to the bits they had picked out already.

The fontman had already started wandering up and down the front of the stage where fans were screaming and stretcyhing their arms as high as they could in a hope that the man would hold their hands or high five them. He did. In fact, i was surprised the guy didn't start crowd surfing, if he had done it wouldn't have seemed at all out of place. After the song, they again, wandered offstage to decide what was going on, and again decided to go back on. This time, they decided to cover "I believe in a thin called love" by The Darkness. I have to admit i think i liked it more with them singing than the original. Once again, offstage talk, then back onstage, only this time with a slightly drunk singer from Birkenhead. The previous nights headliners. They did a bit of a sing-song and had a little dance, but then it was time for them to leave. As soon as they got off stage, the were flcoked by fans begging for autographs and pictures, that they seemed more than happy to give away.

These guys definately have what it takes to become a successful band and i strongly recommend going to see them and giving them support if they do a show near you. I would definately recommend checking out their website and listening to their music. Www.thebrinkband.net.